Ancient Greek Mythology Hellas The Oppressive Essay

Poseidon, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Zeus; these are all gods and goddesses from Hellenic (Ancient Greek) mythology who have been worshipped and prayed to by the people of Hellas for millennia, although not today, but the gods used to be the centre of life in Hellas. The Hellenes would pray to, worship, sacrifice animals to, give up wine and food to and revere the gods due to their power and authority over them. Hoplite: Torch of Prometheus, by Michael Pritsos, takes place in the eighteenth year of the Peloponnesian War (413 BC) in Hellas. The main character, Maxites, is the adopted son of king Diocrates of a fictional polis named Devanum. Through hardships, near death experiences, nightmares and visions, conversations with the gods and the†¦show more content†¦(Driscoll). Therefore, the life of a Hellenic wife in that era was a tough life. They were not treated as well by others as her husband would, and they were often beaten by their own husbands if they did something wrong , or if the husband was drunk. Not only were women’s roles duties at home, but they were also strictly prohibited to do anything but household chores. A similar trend of gender roles is laid out in this novel as well when, â€Å"The young hoplite [Maxites] and his companion [Xanthos] worked together to set the crossbeams in place. [†¦] ‘Maxites’, a youthful voice sounded from behind the hoplite. He turned to find Adara holding a small clay cup of water out to him.† (Pritsos 192 193). While Maxites laboured outside, Adara (the future wife of Maxites) gave him water and brought him food as he worked, showing the role of each gender of this time; the man does the labour and the woman serves the man, and makes sure he is as comfortable as possible. The roles of Maxites and Adara were one hundred percent non-interchangeable. This is a violation of Human Rights, humans have the right to do what they want, as long as it is not illegal, and if this right is stripped from them, they are being afflicted and unjustly forced into doing things that they might not even want to do. As a second example of how the Hellenic culture exhibited in this novel negatively impacts the gender roles, Maxites along with his brother Diomedes and Xanthos (a hoplite friend) are